Advent Calendar - 13 - Joan Sutherland - The Twelve Days of Christmas

Joan Sutherland - The Twelve Days of Christmas

Earlier in the week Hazel and I finally realised that we didn’t know the order of gifts after the swans-a-swimming, the order of the Lords and Ladies, milk-maids and musicians was just a confused blur. It turns out that inconsistency may have had something to do with this. The gifts associated with the final four days are often reordered. For example, the pipers may be on the ninth day rather than the eleventh.

It appears that over the years the order of the last 5 gifts has been at the whim of the performer - although in recent years it has settled into the order that Joan sings…

I’ll assume that everyone has a similar problem so … here’s the half-arsed mnemonic we’ve come up with.

After the swans its maids, posh folk and musicians - although, come to think of it, that doesn’t actually help with which posh folk and which musicians come first. And Joan sings/receives the musicians before the posh folk. I’m not even sure WHAT is a-dancing on day eleven! It’s all very confused.

I think the song needs a beuatiful sounding soprano to do it justice and Joan is that so this is unquestionably wonderful.

But she doesn’t help me work out what arrives when!

• Joan Sutherland - The Twelve Days of Christmas Didn’t chart, 1965

Rather chuffed that the song may have its origins in the North East of England:

There is evidence pointing to the North of England, specifically the area around Newcastle upon Tyne, as the origin of the carol. Husk, in the 1864 excerpt quoted below, stated that the carol was “found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years”, i.e. from approximately 1714. In addition, many of the nineteenth century citations come from the Newcastle area. Twelve Days of Christmas - Wikipedia